When the chips are up
Trying out the local fish and chip shop on your first night in a new home is pretty much a Kiwi rite of passage and one Tracy-Jane and Paul Greaves fully intended to honour when they moved to the West Coast town of Kumara.
But they discovered a hitch – there wasn’t one.
They soon fixed that. Using their combined background in hospitality, they acquired a distinctive orange caravan and opened Prospectors Fish and Chips, bringing classic Kiwi takeaways back to Kumara and introducing a few new favourites.
Fast forward nearly 18 months and Prospectors is practically a local institution and has been named winners of the 2degrees Shop Local People’s Choice award.
In the past two years, the Shop Local campaigns have run in seven regions (from Auckland to North Canterbury), had more than 1000 businesses enter and put eight amazing businesses in the spotlight, 2degrees chief business officer Andrew Fairgray says.
This year, we focused on the mighty South Island with competitions in Southland, Otago, West Coast and Canterbury. We have announced four regional winners who have each won a $20,000 advertising package. Now, we are celebrating the People’s Choice winner.
Tracy-Jane and Paul say it’s incredibly humbling that so many made the effort to vote for them after a year that’s been challenging to say the least.
The business saw almost instant success when it opened at the end of 2019 and enjoyed a busy summer with both international tourists and locals happily waiting in line for food. Then Covid arrived and everything changed.
‘‘Things got very quiet,’’ says Tracy-Jane. ‘‘We had a few moments when we thought about potentially having to close.’’
It was the support of the locals that kept them going.
‘‘Even during the hard times, the locals really pushed us to keep going and kept telling us everything would be fine and we’d come out the other end,’’ she says.
‘‘We’ve got a huge number of West Coasters, from Greymouth to Hokitika, who travel to have our fish and chips.’’
The couple also decided to diversify to keep the business going. Paul says pa¯ ua has always been the most popular item on their menu and during a lightbulb moment in the middle of the night, he realised trademarking their For Real Pa¯ ua Patties and making them available to purchase would be a great complementary business. The big dream is to have them available right throughout the country. ‘‘We hope it will be a way of providing employment for others as well,’’ says Tracy-Jane. ‘‘Covid has meant so many people in hospitality have lost their jobs.’’
They won’t be giving up on the fish and burgers though. The caravan was only meant to be a temporary building that would one day give way to something more permanent.
‘‘But now people don’t want us to change. They want to keep the fun orange caravan and the bean bags out the front.’’